The Institute for Cultural and Healing
Traditions, Ltd. is the only free-standing institute of
its kind in the area. Its fundamental aim is to provide
a forum for the presentation and the contemporary interaction
of diverse cultures, including the healing cultures and
their traditions.
Current issues cannot be understood
unless one is acquainted with the various traditions from
which they spring.
Our perspective finds expression
in the following quotation from T.S. Eliot
The existing monuments form an ideal
order among themselves, which is modified by the introduction
of the new ( the really new) work of art among them. The
existing order is complete before the new work arrives;
for order to persist after the supervention of novelty,
the whole existing order must be, if ever so slightly, altered
and so the relations, proportions, values of each work of
art toward the whole are readjusted; and this is conformity
between the old and the new.
No society can exist without commerce,
but wealth and commerce are but one thread of any society,
and they form but one part of the whole culture, the essential
lifeblood of any society.
The Institute for Cultural and Healing
Traditions is concerned with these aspects of culture in
their myriad expressions and in the various traditions which
are the vehicles for these expressions. The Institute looks
at these traditions in contemporary settings.
We use the word “culture”
in its broadest sense.
Culture, including the culture of
healing, is reflected in how people think. We carry our
culture with us wherever we go. It is expressed, among other
modes,. in our beliefs, in our actions, in our written and
spoken words, in our educational, artistic and healing traditions.
The Institute encourages ongoing
independent individual work in various aspects of contemporary
culture including the culture of healing .To this end, The
Institute provides a freestanding public, educational forum
every Thursday evening. This forum is for Independent Scholars
to present their ongoing work to interested co-learners.
It occasionally invites speakers for Thursday evening sessions.
These sessions are always open to public participants and
interested co-learners.
The Institute has two aspects of
its work:- 1) The Independent Scholar's Evenings run during
most of the acedemic year; and 2) Integrative Wholistic
Healing, a forum that works with hospital and educational
administration to bring Integrative medicine and Wholistic
healing to the communities under their care.
With the word "Tradition"
we wish to highlight The Institute's position that a body
of knowledge, as in practices and philosophies imported
with other cultures, are best understood; and of most use;
when studied in their depth. These units of knowledge, then,
true to their form, can co-exist with other units of knowledge
and provide authentic resources for the community.
We have been concentrating on the
Independent Scholars' Evenings during the past few years,
while the effects of the three Integrative Wholistic Healing
retreats we ran take hold in the community.
We will be focusing, intermittantly,
on that aspect as the need arises.
In the meantime, the Independent
Scholars' Evenings are maintained weekly. This provides
the area with a public forum to bring together varied representatives
from the community while providing a public forum for interested
co-learners. These Evenings are provided for area and regional
residents to present their ongoing work in the presence
of interested co-learners. The presenting of independent
work as well as the possible dialogue following the presentation
is designed to assist participants in furthering their work.
The Independent Scholars are both
local and invited from regional and national levels.
It is a natural consequence that,
with the encouragement of Independent Scholars of great
competency, more independent work will come forward, both
in its completed form as well as in its 'under-construction'
form.
The atmosophere is that of a social
evening: There is wine and a ' world sampler dish' served
in an ambiance of a very large turn-of-the-century living
room.
The role of The Institute is that
of a catalyst. Conditions return to their previous positions
if the catalyst is removed. Catalysts focus on and formulate
trends that then become a permanent part of a community.
The interaction of a catalyst is a delicate balance in a
community. Its effectiveness can be seen most clearly by
observing the conditions around the catalyst when it is
a fully functioning entity.
We are actively seeking to attract
members from varying and different factions of the community
in the sharing of their work.
In these days of solitary internet,
it is an evolution of 21st. Century lifestyles to have an
active Free Standing organised Independent Scholars' Evenings
where participants can freely interchange concepts, ideas
and work without the involvements of formalized institutions.
Adult education without any committment from the side of
the participant is possible in our generation and times.
We are able to have an active, free standing, Public Forum,
where we, as independent scholars, have no commitments expect
to share our ongoing work with interested co-learners.
To that end this organization is
reserved for the convenience of both academicians as well
as lay independent scholars, and is offered under the name
of the Independent Scholars’ Evenings. The events
are held in a fully refurbished Arts and Craft/ Praire style
building built for a private club during the turn of the
last century! It was built for The Moline Commercial Club,
which was started in 1865 by Charles Deere, son of John
Deere. In 1912 the building was built for the Club and it
maintained itself as such till the big crash in 1929. Then
the building was bought by the Y.W.C.A. and remained as
the Y. until the downtowns became so lost with the emergence
of the shopping malls. Recently, as the downtowns are becoming
alive again, this building has been put back into circulation,
totally refurbished and operable with a business that provides
space for The Institute for Cultural and Healing Traditions,
Ltd. Complete with hardwood floors and Prarie School style
crown moldings, the building is now known as The Moline
Club and is located at 513 16th. Street. Moline. Ill. 61265
The only other building ever built
on the property was the first Swedish Church in the area.
This year we began our 8th. year
with the annual dinner to welcome Augustana President and
Mrs. Steven C. Bahls and they join our community. President
Bahls gave his presentation on September 25th. 2003 at 7.30
p.m. at the Independent Scholars' Evenings venue. The event
was free and open to the public. The title of his presentation
was "The Role of Liberal Arts College in the Community."
Please call The Institute at 309-762-9202 or The Moline
Club at 309-762-8547 for further details. The Institute
for Cultural and Healing Traditions LTd. is located at 1530
5th. Ave. Moline.
The Institute has been set up as
a 501©3 organization under U.S. government regulations.
The Institute is based in Moline,
Illinois. Moline is one of 4 picturesque towns on both sides
of the Mississippi, 45 min. away from the University of
Iowa. Two of the towns, Davenport and Bettendorf are in
Iowa, and the other two, Moline and Rock Island are in Illinois.
Together, these 4 cities make the largest metro area between
Chicago and Indianapolis, with a joint population of about
500,000 and it has a draining population of about 1 million
people from the surrounding regional rural area. It also
has two hospitals. Genesis Medical Center is based in Davenport,
Iowa and Trinity Medical Center is based in Rock Island,
Illinois. Additionally, the area is the home of John Deere,
the largest agricultural farm equipment manufacturer and
its allied HMO – John Deere Health Care, Inc.
